Barrow County’s schools should receive about $2 million more in local property taxes for the 2017-18 school year without any increase in the millage rate.
The additional money is generated because the county added to its tax digest by reappraising property for the 2017 tax digest, Jennifer Houston, Barrow County’s assistant superintendent for business services, said.
School officials told the board of education in November the district would have had about $3.4 million more in property taxes this school year if the sales ratio had been higher.
That effort was sparked because Barrow County’s “sales ratio” for 2016 was a low of 35.65 percent. Barrow County was the only county in the state that had a ratio of below 36 percent.
The state does the sales ratio study each year as part of the state’s funding formula. Houston said the county loses money when the ratio is low because the state assumes each county appraises property at the 40 percent level.
Barrow County’s chief tax appraiser Don Elrod said recently his office has “thrown our resources at” reappraising local property.
He said he expects the sales tax ratio to be 38.5 to 39 percent the next time the state does an audit.
He also said if the state ratio is below 38 percent, the county must assess utilities, such as Georgia Power or the EMCs, at the ratio rate rather than at 40 percent. The utilities will be appraised for 2017 at the 35.65 percent level, Elrod said.
The sales ratio is determined by the total number of property sales made in a county compared to the assessed value. The state “puts all those in a hopper and comes up with a finalized ratio,” Elrod said.
Houston said the fiscal year 2018 budget estimates $32.9 million in property taxes. That is about $2 million more than the fiscal year 2017 budget.
See the full story in the Jan. 10 edition of the Barrow News-Journal.

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